Michael Porter's five competitive forces and electronic commerce strategy

¶ … Michael Porter, the only way to sustain advantage through the Internet is via effective strategy.

What is an electronic tender? Where is it cropping up?

An electronic tender is where a manufacturer, service provider, or third party monitors or cares for computers and it. Electronic tenders are cropping up in business-to-customer relationships.

Explain loose, close, and tight relationships?

A loose relationship is one where there is little integration between the two businesses, with one party just providing information to the other. A close relationship is one where two business exchange information informally, with this involving some joint tasks. A tight relationship is one where two business share a process that is important to them, with the information shared often being confidential.

Question 2 a. What is a demand-pull value chain? Explain this concept by citing an example.

A demand-pull value chain is one where products and services are built to order. Dell is an example of this, where Dell customers configure their own computers, with the demands than passed to Dell's suppliers, and the customer's computer built on demand.

b. What is a strategic envelope? What is m-commerce?

A strategic envelope is a guideline to the desired outcome or the direction, but does not include fixed plans and strategies. M-commerce is short for mobile commerce, which refers to the process of conducting commerce from wireless devices.

c. Briefly describe the goal of linkage analysis planning and the three steps in it.

The goal of linkage analysis planning is to define a strategy for utilizing electronic channels effectively. The first step is to define the power relationships among players and stakeholders. The second step is to map out the extended enterprise and to include suppliers, buyers, and strategic partners. The third step is to plan electronic channels to deliver information.

Question 3 a. What is the difference between an architecture and an infrastructure

The it architecture is the blueprint, while the it infrastructure is the implementation of the acrhitecture.

b. What are four attributes of a distributed system?

The four attributes of a distributed system are:

Processing is distributed

Processors are interconnected

Databases are distributed

System-wide rules provide the operating discipline that allows the components to work together c. Name and briefly describe Porter's five competitive forces

The first of Porter's five forces is the threat of new entrants, which refers to how easy or difficult it is for new competitors to enter the market. The second is the bargaining power of buyers, which refers to how much power buyers have to make demands, including price demands. The third is the bargaining power of suppliers, which refers to how much power an organizations suppliers have. For example, if there is only one supplier of a certain item, than that supplier has a lot of power over the organizations who need that item. The fourth is substitute products and services, which refers to how many products are available that buyers can substitute for an organization's products. The fifth is the intensity of rivalry among competitors, which refers to how competitive other organizations in the industry are.

d. Describe the four types of applications in the e-business value matrix.

The four types of applications in the e-business value matrix are:

New fundamentals projects - projects that provide a new way of doing business, but not in business-critical areas.

Operational excellence projects - projects that provide faster access to information.

Rational experimentation projects - projects that test new technologies and ideas.

Breakthrough strategy projects - projects that have the potential to impact the entire company and possible the entire industry.

c. What is metadata? Why is XML important?

Metadata defines the data in a data warehouse. XML is important because it is used to change data from a human-readable format to a computer-readable format. Without this ability, a data warehouse based on bulk data would not be possible.

d. What is a platform interorganizational system? Give three examples.

A platform is a system that allows organizations to communicate and share information. Three examples are virtual private networks, open networks, and electronic data interchange.

Question 6 a. What are the three phases of the content management life cycle, according to Tucker, and what are the goals of each one?

The first stage of the content management life cycle is content creation and acquisition. The goal of this stage is to create quality content. The second stage is content administration and safeguarding. The goal of this stage is define a system for administering and safeguarding content that is effective and efficient. The third stage is content deployment and presentation. The goals of this stage are to attract visitors, allow them to navigate easily, and lead them to the desired actions.

b. What are it outsourcing, transitional outsourcing, best-of-breed outsourcing, offshore outsourcing, shared services, business process outsourcing, and e-business outsourcing.

IT outsourcing means outsourcing the it function to a provider. Transitional outsourcing refers to helping a company move to a new it platform. Best-of-breed outsourcing refers to outsourcing individual it functions to the provider that is the best at that function. Offshore outsourcing refers to outsourcing to providers in other countries. Shared services refers to consolidating services into one center in-house. Business process outsourcing refers to outsourcing an entire process that has a large it component. E-business outsourcing refers to outsourcing the business component related to e-commerce.

Question 7 a. Describe the five pillars of information security.

The five pillars of information security are:

Authentification - verifying the authenticity of users

Identification - identifying users and granting them appropriate access

Privacy - protecting information from being seen

Integrity - keeping information in its original form

Nonrepudiation - preventing parties from denying actions they have taken b. Name 6 features and functions of 4 GLS and briefly explain each.

Features of 4 GLs:

ease of programming able to be used by nonprogrammers

Functions of 4 GLs:

spreadsheet languages database languages application generators report generators c. What are five steps in building a Web Service?

The five steps in building a web service are:

Exposing the code

Writing a service description

Publishing the service

Finding the service

Invoking a Web service d. What is a quick-hit DSS? Define three types quick-hit DSS is a computer-based system that allows decision makers to interact directly with data and analysis models. Three types include data mining, executive information systems, and expert systems.

Question 8 a. Describe three kinds of knowledge representation

One kind of knowledge representation has knowledge as cases. This involves comparing a current case with many other past cases. A second kind of knowledge representation involves neural networks. This involves storing knowledge as nodes in a network. The third form of knowledge representation stores knowledge as rules, where the rules are obtained from experts, laws, or experience.

b. What is a smart tag and how might it be used? What is straight-through processing?

A smart tag is a radio frequency identification device used to provide real-time data about itself, its location, and more. In Singapore, smart tags are placed on cars, with drivers charged fees based on where they drive and when, with this used to manage and control traffic. Straight-through processing means that transaction data is entered only once in a process.

c. How do human capital, structural capital, and customer capital differ?

Human capital is the knowledge and skills of employees. Using human capital involves getting people to share knowledge. Structural capital is the resources available in hardware, software, patents, trademarks, and databases. Structural capital moves human capital and turns it into a tangible company asset. Customer capital is the strength of an organization's relationship with its customers. Like human capital, customer capital is intangible.

d. Describe the four cells of the time/place matrix. Give an example of a technology used in each.

The four cells of the time/place matrix are same time/same place, same time/different place, different time/same place, and different time/different place. The following shows an example of a technology used in each cell of the matrix.

Same time/same place - GSS

Same time/different place - virtual meetings

Different time/same place - e-mail

Different time/different place - e-mail